The CRUD: Read Web service is used to get the description (that is, "read") of a target instance record indexed in a dataset belonging to OSF's Web Services Framework.

Developers communicate with the CRUD: Read Web service using the HTTP GET method. You may request one of the following mime types: (1) text/xml, (2) application/rdf+xml or (3) application/rdf+n3. The content returned by the Web service is serialized using the mime type requested and the data returned depends on the parameters selected.